Preparing your home ahead of the home inspection will make the selling of your home go much more smooth as well as prevent possible delays of your closing date. Follow these tips to speed up the process and get you top dollar for your home.

1. Confirm all the utilities are on. This includes water, gas, and electric.
2. Make sure any and all pets are secured or removed from the property. If they are left at the home put them in a cage or secured outside giving access to the entire home.
3. Test your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors and replace any dead batteries.
4. Replace dirty HVAC air filters and make sure they fit properly.
5. Replace burnt out light bulbs as the inspector will not know if the light fixture is defective or just a bad bulb.
6. Remove all items from around the electric breaker panel, HVAC equipment, water heater, attic, and crawlspace.
7. Remove any wood stored near the foundation as this can be conducive conditions for termites and other wood destroying organisms.
8. Make sure inspector has access to any locked areas. This could be Attic doors, garage door locks, or any exterior gates.
9. Trim your trees back so the limbs do not hang over the roof. Please hire a professional as this can be difficult and dangerous.
10. Repair or replace any items in the home you know to be defective. Examples would be cracked windows, broken door handles, or damaged screens.

 

Checking these things can be of great value and can reduce the stress of selling your home. New Start Inspections can come out and perform a pre-listing inspection to find any hidden trouble that may be found. This can prevent a delay to your closing or cost you the sale of your home.

HOME BUYING ISSUES THAT MATTER

Buying a home? The process can be stressful. A home inspection is supposed to give you peace of mind, but often has the opposite effect. You will be asked to absorb a lot of information in a short time. This often includes a written report, checklist, photographs, environmental reports and what the inspector himself says during the inspection. All this combined with the seller’s disclosure and what you notice yourself makes the experience even more overwhelming. What should you do?

RELAX ABOUT INSPECTION MATTER ISSUES

Relax. Most of your inspection will be maintenance recommendations, life expectancies and minor imperfections. These are nice to know about. However, the issues that really matter will fall into four categories:

1. Major defects. An example of this would be a structural failure.
2. Things that lead to major defects. A small roof-flashing leak, for example.
3. Things that may hinder your ability to finance, legally occupy or insure the home.
4. Safety hazards, such as an exposed, live buss bar at the electric panel.

Anything in these categories should be addressed. Often a serious problem can be corrected inexpensively to protect both life and property (especially in categories 2 and 4). Most sellers are honest and are often surprised to learn of defects uncovered during an inspection.

KEEP ISSUES THAT MATTER IN PERSPECTIVE

Realize that sellers are under no obligation to repair everything mentioned in the report. No home is perfect. Keep things in perspective. Do not kill your deal over things that do not matter. It is inappropriate to demand that a seller address deferred maintenance, conditions already listed on the seller’s disclosure or nit-picky items.